The globalisation of trade and employment: the role of exports

Thesmar and Mathias
Thoenig
The development of job skills and the export business
is observed for a panel of approximately 5,900 French
firms surveyed from 1988 to 1992. The findings show
that a prerequisite for exporting is a significant increase
in job skills levels in the management and commercial
development departments compared with skills
required for products sold on the domestic market.
Manufacturing methods also need to be richer in skills,
but to a lesser extent that is harder to identify statisti-cally.
This increase appears to be as large for exports to devel-oped
countries as for exports to developing countries.
The globalisation of trade is primarily a factor for social
change, because it encourages businesses to reorganise
to take advantage of new commercial prospects.